Idaho Falls High School “Super Fan” Logs 6,000 Miles on Snake River Greenbelt

On an evening when many were watching some of the greatestathletes in the world competing in Sochi, in Idaho Falls, a community favoritewas closing in on an athletic accomplishment of his own. A month ago we broughtyou the story of one man’s journey around the Snake River greenbelt. Mondayevening he reached 6,000 miles walked on this popular walking path.

If the Tiger Den is Greg’s home away from home, thegreenbelt is his personal gym. This man with many nicknames has put foot topavement, ice or snow, every day since 2007. During this stretch he hasn’tmissed a lap, cut a corner or taken a day off for illness, injury, extremetemperatures, or even fear. Monday, before embarking on the final lap of this6,000 mile journey, we caught up with him to get his thoughts.

At this point, Greg thought this was the end of it. Friday,he told us that a few of his fellow Tiger backers might be there to give himsome hot chocolate when he finished. What he didn’t know was that there were alot of people that were also planning on being there to celebrate with him.

“We wanted to come out and support Greg,” said Pete Molino,Head Football Coach at Idaho Falls High School. “He’s been somebody that’s beena guy that comes to all of our events, whether it’s been basketball, football,for years. And he’s kind of a part of the tradition of Idaho Falls High School.”

“He’s been there to support us all the time and it’s goingto mean so much to us,” said Stacey Christensen, Head Cheerleading Coach atIdaho Falls High School. “Win or lose, game will come and go but this momentwill live on for all of us always because he’s been there for us. And we arejust happy to share in this moment with him.”

No one will ever know what exactly was going through Greg’smind as he worked his way around the greenbelt. Perhaps he thought about thevicious attack he received late one night while walking along the west bank. Hemight have been thinking about his aching feet. Knowing Greg, he was probablythinking about the Tiger’s upcoming home game against Blackfoot. And so it musthave meant the world to him as he rounded the corner to find so many of hisTiger friends were waiting for him.

“I was just thinking they brought that big thing out justfor me,” said Greg. “So neat, awful nice.”

Greg told us back in January that his ultimate goal is towalk 10,761 miles. That would be a little further than if he decided to walkfrom the Snake River Greenbelt to Tokyo and back. Of course he would need areally long snorkel or an extreme drought to do this. You can hear his reasonfor walking that specific distance by watching our previous story atthis link.